Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. This is a very interesting topic. It is clearly quite a technical area and, as such, the committee and the Department were right initially to engage with Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and its researchers. That was a good move and I acknowledge the support of the Department in encouraging it. I acknowledge also the work we have seen in the witnesses' presentations, from UCD Earth Institute, the EPA, which has been involved in all this, and the marine and freshwater research centre in GMIT. I am conscious of what Ms Dean said about commercial activities and the European Single Market.

Perhaps all the witnesses could talk about the EU REACH regulation, which basically involves registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals. The regulation has not fully come into effect yet. How then do we dovetail our legislation with the forthcoming regulation? Will the witnesses talk about the European Chemicals Agency, ECHA? It ultimately manages all the technical issues surrounding this whole issue. The witnesses might talk us through that issue a little. Ms Dean also mentioned REACH, and there was perhaps some suggestion that this all might be a little premature. I do not agree. When experts such as Dr. Kevin Lynch come before us and talk about the challenge that we now have microplastics in our fish and our food chain, that must ring an alarm bell for us. We have known about this for a long time. I also acknowledge the work of my colleague, Senator Grace O'Sullivan. She raises this issue constantly in the Seanad, is an expert in this area and has driven this legislation in Seanad Éireann. What is the story with REACH? How does it dovetail with this legislation? We better be ready and it would be better to move this legislation on.

I would like the witnesses to talk about two other issues. What is their engagement with the local authorities on this research? The local authorities are licensing bodies and are responsible for monitoring various hospitals, for instance. In my local authority we had issues with the release of pathogens into the sewerage system. There are many breaches of these licences across the 31 local authorities, but this is the local authorities' mandate so they do regular sampling and reporting, for instance. I believe they do not report enough. There needs to be a greater focus on these drain and attenuation tanks, particularly in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and the hospital sector. There are huge concerns about pathogens coming into the water streams from the health and hospital sector, and alarm bells should be ringing there. I have seen some of this myself so I have a little knowledge of it. The witnesses might talk about this in the context of research. May I suggest, if they have not already done so, that they engage with some of the local authorities and look at their data? It is all about data. This is a science.

Have the witnesses had any experience in the course of their work with Teagasc? Teagasc, as they know, engages in outreach. Regarding grant schemes under EU farm payment schemes, etc., and environmental initiatives, we know there will be soil cores and soil boring. There is analysis of those.

The profiles of these cores show various pollutants in the soil. These are standard with regard to various EU-funded agricultural programmes and a lot of information could be gleaned from them. Alarm bells must be ringing now that we are told we have microbeads in the food chain. We must sit up and do something. I welcome the legislation. The more scientific and technical research and validation we have with regard to the legislation, the better.

I would particularly like to focus on the Irish Cosmetics, Detergents and Allied Products Association. How have the private sector and industry been engaging? Clearly, it is in their interests to do so as people are becoming much more environmentally aware. People are looking at the backs of products to see whether they contain microbeads. Many people are becoming very conscious of microbeads in the cosmetic and detergent industries, and in the agricultural and horticultural sector where we know microbeads are used in some fertilisers to assist in their distribution. These are challenges and I would like to hear from Ms Dean because I am always conscious of industry but we want responsible responses. It is not enough to say it will impact on profits. The environment is critical for this generation and future generations. I have long argued that people have become very conscious when purchasing of how a product impacts on the environment. I would like to know more about the European REACH process. I thank the witnesses for engaging with the committee.